By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Last night's episode of TNA Impact scored a 1.15 overall rating off a 1.18 first hour rating and 1.13 second hour rating.

The break down was nearly identical to Impact two weeks ago on October 21, which scored a 1.16 overall rating off a first hour 1.18 rating and second hour 1.14 rating.

The key to the pattern is Impact's now-typical quarter-hour ratings pattern. Impact typically opens right around the show's overall average, then peaks in the fourth of fifth quarter-hour and begins a steady decline the rest of the show.

This week's Impact was no exception with the show opening in Q1 right at the overall average, increasing above the overall average, peaking in Q5 with a 1.25 rating, and beginning a steady decline.

Impact finished with a 1.10 rating in Q7 and a 0.98 rating in Q8, which were the two lowest-rated quarter-hours of the show.

Reaction then suddenly jumped to a 1.14 rating in Q1 of the show following Impact. Q2 of Reaction scored a 0.92 rating, which was nearly above the final 15 minutes of Impact.

First Hour Break Down

-- Impact opened with a 1.14 rating in Q1 for Eric Bischoff delivering a promo on Mr. Anderson.

-- Impact then increased to a 1.19 rating in Q2 and maintained that same rating in Q3 and Q4. (Impact returned to a 1.19 rating in Q6 following the show's peak rating in Q5.)

The second quarter-hour (1.19 rating) featured EV2 backstage, Mr. Anderson's dedicated phone interview, and the Velvet Sky vs. Sarita Knockouts match.

The third quarter-hour (1.19 rating) featured Ric Flair warming up Eric Bischoff backstage, Fortune backstage, and the first-half of the six-person tag match of Mickie James & Ink, Inc. vs. Generation Me & Tara.

The fourth quarter-hour (1.19 rating) featured the end of the six-person tag, the first of several Eric Young & Orlando Jordan counseling sessions, Team 3D talking to the Machineguns, and Jeff Jarrett's ring entrance.

Second Hour Break Down

-- Following the ratings pattern, Impact peaked in Q5 at the top of the hour with a 1.25 rating for Jeff Jarrett's promo and Samoa Joe busting through the ramp to attack him and set up their Turning Point PPV match. The segment also featured the first-half of the three-way TV Title match.

-- Impact returned to the 1.19 rating in Q6 for the end of the A.J. Styles vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Rhino TV Title match, the post-match EV2 segment, and the first-half of Kaz vs. Doug Williams.

-- Following the ratings pattern, Impact hit a low point for the show in Q7 with a 1.10 rating. The segment featured the end of Kaz vs. Williams, post-match with Fortune, more Young & Jordan counseling, and The Pope vs. Abyss default main event.

-- Continuing the pattern, Impact hit a new low point in Q8 with a 0.98 rating. The segment featured the post-match with Pope and Abyss, a Robbie E. promo, Eric Bischoff coming to the ring for the final segment, and two commercial breaks.

Reaction Quarter-Hour Break Down

-- Reaction opened with a big jump to a 1.14 rating in Q1, which featured Matt Morgan answering Bischoff's Open Challenge, Ric Flair making Morgan vs. Jeff Hardy official for the PPV, and a preview of the show coming up.

-- Reaction typically drops off from Q1 with the "end of Impact" to Q2 with the "beginning of Reaction," but the show maintained a significant portion of the audience in Q2 with a 0.92 rating.

The second quarter-hour featured back-and-forth promos from Jeff Hardy and Matt Morgan talking about their PPV title match, followed by back-and-forths with Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett promoting their PPV match.

-- Reaction then dropped to a 0.68 rating in Q3 and 0.61 rating in Q4 with more back-and-forth promos hyping PPV matches.

Caldwell's Analysis: Breaking this down, it looks like TNA has created a situation where the audience is trained to tune out in the final half-hour of the show and tune back in for the Reaction "over-run" to catch the "end of Impact." That's not a healthy trend. It's worth shaking things up by actually "finishing Impact" during Impact so the audience doesn't automatically tune out at the end of the show, knowing they can catch the end of Impact at the top of the hour.

The big jump from Q8 of Impact to Q1 of Reaction seems to indicate a lack of interest in Eric Bischoff's "Challenge" to Mr. Anderson, which TNA didn't exactly hype effectively when they aired an interview from Anderson during the broadcast pretty convincingly saying he would not be on Impact. There seemed to be more interest in seeing the "end of Impact" with Matt Morgan taking the TNA Title shot and the immediate fall-out of Morgan and Hardy talking back and forth about their PPV match.

Although Impact did a so-so job hyping the PPV, it's possible TNA stumbled upon additional PPV buys with those strong Q1 and Q2 ratings for Reaction when TNA actually was hyping the top PPV matches.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

TV RATINGS: TNA Impact & ROH TV viewership - Week 19 on Dest. America - Impact surges post-BFG, ROH draws big audience

TV WRESTLING VIEWERSHIP - Week of Sept. 28: Full Break Down of last week's Pro Wrestling TV with DVR viewing

TNA NEWS: TNA announces TV tapings on January U.K. Tour